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Technorati is indexing me again! They had to make a code change to fix
the problem with my blog getting stuck in their queue. Kudos to Eric M.
and the guys at
GetSatisfaction.com
where they have "community powered support for Technorati".

Well, they're "sorta, kinda" indexing me anyway. It's on a 24 hour tape
delay or something. So I never get picked up by Memeorandum because they
pull from Technorati and Technorati has stuff I posted yesterday
listed as my latest blog entry. And that's old news to Memeorandum.

Wankers.

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Check this out. The Obama Administration clearly isn't doing enough to attract
illegal aliens to these United States, so now they've added "married to" (or
"thinking about being married to") a person of the same sex as
yet another reason to cancel deportation proceedings.

Henry Velandia is a Venezuelan national who moved to Princeton, NJ while
appearing in a Univision TV series. He overstayed his visa, which makes him
ineligible for a Green Card. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
caught up to him, and initiated deportation hearings.

But then there was a "catch."

Last year Mr. Velandia took a ride to Connecticut to "marry" a fellow named
Joshua Vandiver and suddenly he was a cause celebre among the
intelligensia. Because even though he broke the law, Henry Velandia was
being unjustly deported! ICE picked on him because he is gay!

As always when it comes to "gay rights," there are no rules. There are only
rainbows. And unicorns. And of course sympathetic bureaucrats who drag their
feet until their bosses can see which way the political winds are blowing.

Two weeks ago, citing waning Obama Administration support for the Defense of
Marriage Act, ICE changed their tune. "Pursuing Mr. Velandia's deportation
is not an enforcement priority at this time." And just like that the judge
dropped the charges. Henry Velandia's get-out-of-jail-free card arrived in
yesterday's mail.

Well whaddya know. When it comes to "Love, Illegal Alien Style," boy-meets-girl
is totally passe. ICE is on to all the fake bride scams and they put every
traditionally married immigrant couple through the ringer. But now, thanks
to "gay marriage," the backdoor to Green Card Nirvana is wide open again.

So starting next month, when every Juan, Jose, and Hector in the Tri-State Area
hotfoots it over to New York to get hitched to the bracero of his dreams, don't
say I didn't warn you.

The venerable 100 watt light bulb just might get a reprieve. Congressman Fred
Upton (R-Mich.), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is finally
going to
make good on his promise to hold hearings on repealing the idiotic
incandescent bulb ban he championed in 2007.

It only took millions of Americans shining a spotlight on his stupidity for
Upton to get his butt in gear.

Upton has come under increased pressure in recent weeks, sources say, after
failing to follow up on a promise he made after assuming the committee
chairmanship that he would hold hearings on reversing the ban. After months
of paralysis - and with the ban just six months from going into effect on
January 1 - outrage was building among his own Republican committee colleagues
and conservative activists, including a national petition campaign,
FreeOurLight.org, sponsored by the influential Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Well, good.

Repeal of the ban is widely popular among House republicans. In the Senate,
the catchily-named BULB Act (Better Use of Light Bulbs), sponsored by Jim
DeMint (R-S.C.), and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), is currently wending its way through
committee.

BigFurHat, who never minces words, calls these dissatisfied folks
"imbeciles."

To be fair to some New Jersey residents, they aren't newly stupid. A majority
in that poll have been stupid for a very long time. I am fascinated by the
mouthbreathers who listened to Christie campaign and detail EXACTLY what he
was going to do if elected, and now that he is doing it, the people who were
once excited by this alternative to the irresponsible ways of the past democrat,
and corrupt, governors are perplexed and angry. This is serious stupid. This is
"we need a test to be able to vote" stupid.

Yup.

There's an old saying, God must love stupid people because he made so damned
many of them. But why Lord, why did such a large percentage of them end up
in New Jersey?
Wisconsin was full?

New York State voters approve 64 - 19 percent of the job Gov. Andrew Cuomo is
doing, 20 points better than New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie and leading
governors in other states surveyed by Quinnipiac University. White Catholic
voters approve 62 - 22 percent.

"It's up, up and away for super-Andrew after the close of the legislative
session. Gov. Cuomo's job approval is high, even among Republicans, and almost
3-1 among Catholics," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac
University Polling Institute.

Fascinating. You know what this means? It means that 62 percent (and probably
more) of New York State's Catholics do not understand Catholicism.

Andrew Cuomo is pro infanticide abortion.

Andrew Cuomo championed same-sex "marriage."

Both of which are of course anathema to Catholic doctrine.

Andrew Cuomo is not exactly a Catholic role model, and to believe otherwise
is scandalous.

Archbishop Dolan, you have your work cut out for you. Some remedial CCD
classes in every parish might be a good place to start. And then a reminder
that the Sacrament of Confession brings true joy and peace.

It's official. Governor Chris Christie signed into law legislation which
sets the parameters of public employee health and pension benefits. The
unions can no longer take advantage of each individual municipality and
school district in a race to grab the biggest piece of the pie.

Christie, who signed the bill flanked by a bipartisan cast of mayors, said
passage of the bill is his biggest legislative victory since taking office.

"It is important moment for the state of New Jersey, for its citizens, its
taxpayers and New Jersey has once again become a model for America," Christie
said at the bill signing.

Starting on Friday, public employees across all levels of government will pay
an additional percent of their pay into the pension system.

Employees will begin to pay more for their health insurance when their contracts
expire. For those without contracts or with contracts that have already expired,
the increased payments could begin as soon as January, when new health insurance
plans are expected to be completed.

WTF? Then I saw that Firefox wanted my attention. The Firefox 5 update
was ready, it needed to be installed NOW, my pc was already halfway
into a reboot to complete the upgrade, and it wasn't taking "no" for an answer.

Yeah, that made me happy.

I control my pc, not Mozilla. I decide when my software should be updated.

And I damn well control when my pc reboots. I don't need some high and mighty
browser vendor yanking my work out from under me just because it's convenient
for them.

When Chris Christie was our U.S. Attorney he made his bones prosecuting
political corruption. He was pretty good at it too, going 130 for 130
in the conviction department. After President Obama appointed Paul Fishman
to succeed Christie the office began to de-emphasize corruption cases.
(The cynic in me says that's because most of the guys Christie convicted
were Democrats…)
Instead Mr. Fishman has decided to take his office in a new direction:
securities fraud and other white-collar crimes.

"I thought it was important for the office to have a very distinct emphasis
on large-scale white-collar fraud cases that have a very disruptive impact
on the markets in New Jersey," said Paul J. Fishman, the state's U.S. attorney.

In an office known over the years for its aggressive prosecution of political
corruption, Fishman has been shifting more resources of late into white-collar
crime. Soon after taking over the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office in 2009, he
formed an economic crimes unit, headed by Judith H. Germano, who said the
number of securities fraud investigations and prosecutions in the office have
increased exponentially.

Which is good, nobody here is a fan of securities fraud. Although, you know,
political corruption in the Garden State hasn't exactly been eradicated. And
what if political corruption crossed paths with white-collar crime, on a scale
that exceeds Mr. Fishman's definition of "large-scale" by an order or two of
magnitude? What then?

As to white-collar crime, what about the one type of white-collar crime that
goes entirely unpunished? For an accounting fraud of $567 million, Enron's
executives went to jail, and its head guy died there. For an accounting fraud
ten times that size, the two Democrat hacks who headed Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick, walked away with a combined
taxpayer-funded payout of $116.4 million. Fannie and Freddie are two of the
largest businesses in America, but they're exempt from SEC disclosure rules and
Sarbanes-Oxley "corporate governance" burdens, and so in 2008, unlike Enron,
WorldCom or any of the other reviled private-sector bogeymen, they came close
to taking down the entire global economy. Yes, yes, I know two wrongs don't make
a right (unless you're Jamie Gorelick), but what then is the point of the SEC?

And what then is the point of the U.S. Attorney's office having "a very
distinct emphasis on large-scale white-collar fraud cases" when they are not
the least bit interested in prosecuting the one case which certainly had "a
very disruptive impact on the markets in New Jersey?"

Break out the popcorn folks, we've got ourselves a cat fight! The leaders of
New Jersey's two biggest environmental groups are fighting mad —
at each other.

Once best friends, [Jeff] Tittel and [David] Pringle now act like bitter
enemies, and their spat threatens to divide the environmental movement at
a critical time.

Good. Every minute they spend fighting each other is one less minute they can
use toward foisting more idiotic regulations on us.

So, why are they fighting? Chris Christie! Pringle wants to work with the
governor, Tittel reflexively loathes all Republicans. And since Christie
won't bow down and french-kiss Mother Gaia whenever he commands it, Tittel
is cheesed off at Pringle for selling out.

Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University, calls out the real
issue here:

"It tells you a lot about how the leaders of so many of these interest groups
are driven by their own egos."

Say it isn't so! The ecowarriors are benignly altruistic, aren't they? Putting
Mother Nature first, but for the good of mankind, they just can't be in it for
self-aggrandizement! That would be so, hypocritical. Oh but then you
read about how Al Gore has morphed environmentalism into
population control and you gotta wonder, are these guys for real?

Because I'm not interested in dying for Gaia. I'm pretty sure you're not down
with that idea either. So like I said, the longer Chris Christie can keep the
econuts off balance, the better it is for people like you and me.

Since 1930, electric clocks have kept time based on the rate of the electrical
current that powers them. If the current slips off its usual rate, clocks run
a little fast or slow. Power companies now take steps to correct it and keep
the frequency of the current - and the time - as precise as possible.

The group that oversees the U.S. power grid is proposing an experiment would
allow more frequency variation than it does now without corrections, according
to a company presentation obtained by The Associated Press.

Those corrections take effort, and the amount of effort needed is growing more
complex every day. Which seems counter-intuitive because he power grid has run
at 60 cycles per second for more than 80 years. They should know how to keep
it that way by now! So what changed?

Green power, that's what. It's a whole different kettle of fish than the older,
legacy (aka fossil fuel, nuclear, or hydro-electric) systems. And there's more
and more of it being connected to the grid every day.

In the future, more use of renewable energy from the sun and wind will mean
more variations in frequency on the grid. Solar and wind power can drop off
the grid with momentary changes in weather. Correcting those deviations is
expensive and requires instant backup power to be always at the ready.

Hmmm, so does that mean all this new-fangled green energy stuff is less
reliable? Why yes, yes it does.

Hence the need to test the effects of allowing the frequency to fluctuate.

No one is quite sure what will be affected. This won't change the clocks in
cellphones, GPS or even on computers, and it won't have anything to do with
official U.S. time or Internet time.

But wall clocks and those on ovens and coffeemakers - anything that flashes
"12:00" when it loses power - may be just a bit off every second, and that
error can grow with time.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. runs the nation's interlocking
web of transmission lines and power plants. A June 14 company presentation
spelled out the potential effects of the change: East Coast clocks may run as
much as 20 minutes fast over a year, but West Coast clocks are only likely to
be off by 8 minutes. In Texas, it's only an expected speedup of 2 minutes.

Some parts of the grid, like in the East, tend to run faster than others.
Errors add up. If the grid averages just over 60 cycles a second, clocks
that rely on the grid will gain 14 seconds per day, according to the
company's presentation.

This will be an interesting experiment to see how dependent our timekeeping
is on the power grid, said Demetrios Matsakis, head of the time service
department at the U.S. Naval Observatory, one of two official timekeeping
agencies in the federal government.

I guess it's time to break out those sundials again. They'll be more accurate
than the alarm clock next to my bed. And best of all they're powered by a
kind of renewable energy which thankfully isn't dependent on the power grid.
Yet.

That's green energy for you. Less reliable, more expensive, and a potential
cause of nationwide inconvenience. What's not to like?

Four RINOs joined the atheist Democrats in subverting 6,000 years of
Judeo-Christian tradition. They tossed it aside like yesterday's rubbish
in order to curry favor with the practitioners of deviancy.

Archbishop Dolan was eloquent, yet restrained in his condemnation:

"The passage by the Legislature of a bill to alter radically and forever
humanity's historic understanding of marriage leaves us deeply disappointed
and troubled.

"We strongly uphold the Catholic Church's clear teaching that we always treat
our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love. But we just
as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in a
lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those
children and the spouses themselves. This definition cannot change, though we
realize that our beliefs about the nature of marriage will continue to be
ridiculed, and that some will even now attempt to enact government sanctions
against churches and religious organizations that preach these timeless truths.

"We worry that both marriage and the family will be undermined by this tragic
presumption of government in passing this legislation that attempts to redefine
these cornerstones of civilization.

"Our society must regain what it appears to have lost — a true
understanding of the meaning and the place of marriage, as revealed by God,
grounded in nature, and respected by America's foundational principles."

But His Excellency is no match for the forces behind National Buggery Week,
which culminates on Sunday with an X-rated parade that in light of this vote
will most certaily rise to a level of debauchery unsuitable for anyone with
young children or a weak stomach.

And politicians will fall over themselves to be seen marching in it. For such
is the allure of sin that the Prince of Darkness finds all too many men who are
eager to sup at his table.

Anyway for my Real Friends, and you know who you are, please enjoy
these pictures of Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi as my thanks for your loyal
patronage. You guys (and gals) are great. Really. Your friendship is truly
appreciated.

Now if I could only get Padma to whip up a delightful celebratory meal for our
enjoyment…

Greg Pavelka, a wildlife biologist with the Corps of Engineers in Yankton, SD,
[defended the destruction, stating] that this event will leave the river in a
"much more natural state than it has seen in decades," describing the epic
flooding as a "prolonged headache for small towns and farmers along its path,
but a boon for endangered species." He went on to say, "The former function of
the river is being restored in this one-year event. In the short term, it could
be detrimental, but in the long term it could be very beneficial."

This is Official United States Government Policy. They don't give a shit about
people, just "endangered species." Why? Because the people experiencing this
"prolonged headache" are just a bunch of flyover country rednecks anyway.
You'll notice that it's never the ivory tower prognosticators who are
sacrificed on the alter of environmentalism; it's always the poor schlub
who's just trying to get by and take care of his family.

Floods in Malibu are a Crime Against Humanity. Floods in North Dakota are a
boon for endangered species.

Historic. There really is no other word for it. Today the New Jersey
State Assembly
passedhistoric legislation limiting the ability of public workers
to collectively bargain for their health and pension benefits.

Unions have blasted the bill for ending their ability to collectively bargain
their medical benefits. Health care plans for 500,000 public workers would be
set by a new state panel comprised of union workers and state managers, rather
than at the negotiating table.

In addition, police officers, firefighters, teachers and rank-and-file public
workers would all pay more for their pensions and health benefits. The bill
would also eliminate cost-of-living increases to pensions for retirees and
raise the retirement age for new workers.

Unlike their fleebagger compatriots in Wisconsin, New Jersey Democrats stepped
up and worked with Governor Christie and the Republicans to get the job done.
They put the needs of everyone above the demands of the unions.

This is a huge political victory for Chris Christie. Huge. He pulled
off a truly bipartisan deal to bring skyrocketing public employee benefit costs
back down to earth.
The unions huffed and they puffed but in the end the people (and sanity)
prevailed.

In an appearance on The Today Show this morning Governor Christie praised
Democrats Steve Sweeney and Shelia Oliver for their leadership on this
contentious issue. And he announced he'll sign the legislation in a special
ceremony early next week.

The Tenth Amendment used to mean something. If NJ Assemblywoman Alison Littell
McHose has her way it could regain some of its lost stature. She has introduced
legislation (A4155) to join ongoing efforts in 12 other states which would
nullify the federal government's unconstitutional Obamacare mandates.

Yes folks, Obamacare really is unconstitutional. Just ask constitutional
scholar Randy Barnett who was the original voice in the wilderness railing
against the individual mandate back in 2009. Funny thing though, courts keep
agreeing with him. And his notion of Ninth and Tenth Amendment limits on
federal power are now considered
mainstream.

Most constitutional scholars initially ridiculed [Randy] Barnett's argument
against the individual mandate — that Congress cannot regulate or punish
the "inactivity" of not buying something.

Few mock it anymore, now that two courts have adopted the same reasoning in
ruling against the individual mandate's constitutionality. The U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 11th Circuit will hear an appeal to one of those rulings this
week in Atlanta.

In less than two years, Barnett, 59, has accomplished what few law professors
ever manage to do: make an arcane constitutional argument so compelling and
clear that it becomes part of the national conversation.

One of the mockers is terrorist-sympathizing Rutgers law professor Frank Askin.
There is no progressive shibboleth to which his knee will not jerk. And true to
form he exercises his keen legal mind to opine on the issue of nullification:

"What kind of Lunacy?"

Well Mr. Askin, it's the kind of lunacy our Founding Fathers would have
applauded. Unlike, for example, your particular brand of lunacy which imparts
Miranda and Geneva Convention rights to foreign citizens who are engaged in
waging war on these Unites States.

Or perhaps you meant the lunacy of Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver who refuses
to even consider McHose's bill. North Dakota considered it, and their governor
recently signed a nullification measure into law. Unsurprisingly the sky did
not fall and the citizens of that state remain free to go about their business
as they please.

Ah but Askin (and Oliver) fall back on "the Supremacy Clause," a tired old
argument which says anthing Congress does automatically supercedes any state
or local statutes. Unfortunately for them Professor Barnett has effectively
torpedoed that line of reasoning via the Enumerated Powers clause. And of
course those pesky Ninth and Tenth Amendments.

Really, I do. In the same sense that when I think "guy who should be Salma
Hayek's second husband" I think — me!

As in, Not. Gonna. Happen.

But then I read
John Hawkins' interview with the former New York governor and it hit me;
By George I think this Pataki fellow is on to something!

Well, we've already seen how every American family is affected when the dollar
declines. We were paying over $4.00 a gallon for gas. It's now in the high
$3.00 and that has nothing to do with anything but the fact that the dollar
has collapsed globally from where it was a year ago. You're paying more for
food because the price of wheat and grain and corn is much higher than it was.
You're paying more for clothing because it's costing more to import clothing
from overseas.

If we continue to see these massive deficits, you're going to see rampant
inflation and it will have a terrible impact on every American's life.
Everything they buy is going to cost more, but they're not going to be getting
paid more at work. We saw it under Jimmy Carter and if this president has his
way, we're going to see either a very real economic decline or this massive
inflation over the course of the next decade or so.

I dare any conservative to articulate a better explanation of the dangers
inherent in Obamanomics.

That's not to say I'm sold on Pataki 2012. He might be a fiscal hawk, and
indeed he's quoted in the interview praising Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
But like Daniels, Pataki is squishy on steroids when it comes to other conservative
hot-button issues like abortion, gun control, and health care. While governor
in NY he instituted "Pataki-Care" which is really RomneyCare lite. As I
recall it covers unmarried children up to age 29. That isn't exactly
a "stand on your damn two feet" approach to adulthood.

And back in 2000 he signed the strictest gun control legislation in the nation,
a bill championed by uber-liberal nutjob Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy. Her
crusade to make a criminal out of every gun owner found a sympathetic ear in
George Pataki. There's nothing to indicate his views on the Second Amendment
have "evolved."

But the real deal-breaker for me is his stance on infanticide
abortion. He's for it. As a fellow Catholic I cannot understand how he
reconciles his faith with legalized murder.

So here's my advice to George Pataki, sit on the sidelines and endorse another
fiscal conservative with broader appeal because you are never going to
be president. But like Donald Trump and Ron Paul you can work quite effectively
to steer the national conversation on fiscal responsibility in the right
direction.

Decorum is for weenies. Proper dress? That's so discriminatory! So when
students graduate from the Sussex County Technical School shirts and ties for
the boys are out. As are dresses for girls. Thanks to the ACLU of New Jersey
anything goes. Because gender is so outdated!

One girl, one girl, objected to the requirement that she wear a dress.
Really, I can see how that could cramp her style. A girl in a dress is a crime
against humanity. According to her mother (shouldn't that be
"Parent 1?") it's "old fashioned."

So, the ACLU rushes to the rescue, and dress codes be damned! Rules are for
chumps, and when "Lola" gets her first job they'll be on speed-dial ready
to pounce if the guidelines for Business Casual don't include skirts for boys.

Then there's that whole reason for the Revolutionary War in the first place
thing — citizens rebelling against onerous taxation. Here we have
well-heeled union fatcats marching in support of higher taxation
and not one of them even bothers to acknowledge the irony.

So, with apologies to
Sam Cooke, here's an anthem for the next NJEA protest march.

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the french I took

But I do know that my union is blue
And I know that if it's your union too
What a progressive world this would be

Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for

But I do know that one and one is two
Except if Chris Christie says that it's really true
Because the union means everything to me

Now I don't claim to be an "A" student
But I'm trying to be
So maybe by being ignorant of history
I can win lifetime benefits for me

After which they can launch into a rousing rendition of Send in the
Clowns.

National NAACP head Ben Jealous weighed in against the pension and health
benefit bill moving through the Legislature today, saying black New Jerseyans
would be disproportionately hurt by the changes.

"We see this same pattern in many states and cities across the nation. Public
sector jobs are critical in communities of color and attacks on bargaining
rights and health care disproportionately affect our communities," said
Jealous in a prepared statement.

Little Miss Attila and Dan Collins are living proof that sane people can be
found even in the leftiest of enclaves. She's from California, he hails from
The People's Republic of Vermont. They're two great bloggers who've teamed up
to launch Conservative Commune
aka The Conservatory.

It's not just another blog though, it's a place for right-minded folks to engage
in commerce. And blog.

We will offer creative right-minded folks a place to get together and generate
a new sense of community. There will be a calendar, a news/blogging page with
springboards for discussion, a set of classified ads, a "goods and services"
page, and a special location for books, videos, podcasts, production companies,
and motion pictures to announce themselves. Though our emphasis is on
communications and new media, we will also serve as a place for think tanks
and traditional publications to make their presences known.

After all, at the end of the day most of us would rather do business with
people who share our values. And we all know plenty of people in creative
fields who won't use their real names for any activity or event that's
considered too "free markety." The potential impact on their professional
lives would be too dire. This is a shame; our site aims to connect people
who have useful new media talents with the folks who can use their services,
while providing news and commentary, and pointing the "lay reader" to some
of the best memes and information out there.

They blogrolled me so you know they've got good taste!

Seriously though, it sounds like a really good idea, right wing commerce for
right wing communities. Check it out.

We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago. When we
did, it was our intent to begin our coverage of this US Open championship with
a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship, held in
our nation's capital for the third time. Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge
of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset
anyone, and we'd like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.

Some "apology," eh? They're not apologizing for mangling the Pledge of
Allegiance; they don't even acknowledge which words were left out or that
their edit matches the
Harry Reid version. Nope, but if we were offended, they're sorry.

The University of Colorado's Sea Level Research Group decided in May to add 0.3
millimeters -- or about the thickness of a fingernail -- every year to its
actual measurements of sea levels, sparking criticism from experts who called
it an attempt to exaggerate the effects of global warming.

Make that GloBULL Warming. They say that their fudge factor is needed because
the land is rising too.

Steve Nerem, the director of the widely relied-upon research center, told
FoxNews.com that his group added the 0.3 millimeters per year to the actual
sea level measurements because land masses, still rebounding from the ice age,
are rising and increasing the amount of water that oceans can hold.

But the land rising and the oceans getting bigger is a good thing, isn't it?
The (possibly) rising sea stays hemmed in by bigger and bigger shores!

Plus, seeing as how we're probably entering into a
mini ice age the land might "rebound" even more!

Hide the decline. Hide the rise. I always thought that when the data didn't
match the science it was time for new science. Silly me. Global Warming isn't
science, it's
religion.

Democrats and Republicans
worked together yesterday to finally break the public employee unions'
death grip on the taxpayers' wallets. Yes you read that correctly, rather
than emulating their Wisconsin fleebagger counterparts, some NJ
Democrats stood up for what was right.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), the bill's architect, began
the four-hour hearing against the backdrop of jeers and insults. Union members
hissed when his name was called and berated him as a "disgrace" and "turncoat."

Sweeney, a union ironworker, touted his union credentials, but said that as a
legislator he also had a obligation to protect the state's taxpayers.

"We need action," he said. "Reform is needed now. We have a pension system in
crisis, one that is teetering on the brink of collapse. That is becoming
clearer as we see record numbers of public employees retiring."

The goal? Limit collective bargaining by public employee unions by
establishing state-wide pension and benefit formulas. Everyone, even cops and
firemen, will have to pay for their health benefits. And the lopsided
union-friendly arbitration system will be dumped on the ash heap of history too.

Gov. Chris Christie praised the measure Thursday at the annual conference of
the New Jersey Association of Counties meeting in Atlantic City. "New Jersey
is setting a model for dealing with these problems in an honest, forthright
and bipartisan way," he boasted.

Unfortunately, quite a few democrats remain committed to their union
constituency. One fellow likened Gov. Chris Christie and his newfound
allies to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Yes,
really.

As I read
Moran's editorial in the Ledger this morning I kept thinking how
surreal it seemed. Here's an adamantly pro-union guy, writing for one of the
most liberal papers in the country, and he's echoing the Tea Party.

Teachers refused to take a pay freeze, despite the recession. Cops wouldn't
yield on benefits, forcing mass layoffs in violent cities like Camden and
Newark. Firefighters fought to keep giant payouts for unused sick time, even
as union members in the private sector were taking a pounding.

Even Thursday, when their doom was obvious, the unions didn't seem to get it.
At the rally, they sang songs about the working class and the rich, as if they
were coal miners eeking out a meager wage, as if middle-class taxpayers were
the greedy mine owners.

How clueless are the union leaders? This clueless:

"Have we dealt with this situation well?" asked Vince Giordano, the political
operative for the state's teachers union. "Yes, without question."

You got crushed Vince. Your angry rhetoric is falling on deaf ears
now. You collect $421,615 in salary and $128,508 in deferred compensation on
the backs of the teachers and you call me greedy for wanting to save a
few bucks on my property taxes? I'm thinking clueless doesn't begin to cover it.

Assuming his coalition holds Chris Christie's star just got a whole lot
brighter. The momentum is certainly on his side. Assembly Speaker Sheila
Oliver is on board, even as other powerful democrats are breaking out the
long knives. Quite frankly I'm impressed.
I didn't think she had the guts to stand up to bullies like Joe Cryan
(D-Union) and Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth). But she did.

The full State Senate, and then the Assembly vote on the bill next week. The
taxpayers are keeping their fingers crossed. This really could be the beginning
of a beautiful friendship.

In Wisconsin the public employee unions and their Democratic Party toadies went
all in,
and lost. The State Supreme Court struck down a county judge's silly
injunction yesterday, making Republican Governor Scott Walker's plan to curb the
excesses of their gold-plated benefits packages the official law of the land.

Now the battle moves to New Jersey where Governor Chris Christie has
struck a deal with State Senate President Steve Sweeney to raise pension
and benefit contribution rates on a sliding scale. Even better, unlike in
Wisconsin the plan does not exempt police and firefighters unions. That's
great news because the benefits they currently enjoy aren't merely "Cadillac
Plans," they're so lavish I'd call them Lamborghini Plans. And that's on top
of a pay scale which is
the highest in the nation.

Unfortunately the unions have a friend in State Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver.
She remains committed to the status quo, working to water down the proposal by
insisting on a 3 year sunset provision. That is, we'll curb benefits until
2014, but then it's off to the races again.

Public employees are planning a raucous protest in Trenton on Thursday (June
16), when the legislation will receive a public hearing. They are asking
demonstrators to drive around the city at the speed limit — and not a
mile more — to create traffic headaches and prevent lawmakers and
staffers from getting to the Capitol.

OK, maybe not such a big fight considering that driving the speed limit is,
you know, the law. But that "raucous" part worries me, seeing as
how their buddies in Wisconsin effectively shut down the state capitol for
weeks with sit-ins and protest marches. New Jersey union goons aren't exactly
squeamish when it comes to brass-knuckles tactics so who knows what else
they've got planned.

On the other hand the unions already played the raucous protest card
last year and Gov. Christie was unmoved. He didn't back down then and
I'm virtually certain he won't blink now either.

The unemployment rate remains above 9%. That's a whole lotta folks who'll
have trouble mustering sympathy for a bunch of whiny bureaucrats demanding
the right to keep picking our pockets. Save your breath guys, and remember
that you're lucky you still have a job.

To suggest that women might make better politicians and make better decisions
overall always brings out the heated arguments, but it's a fair one to consider
especially in light of the pretty bad decisions — both personal and
political — our mostly male-run world has made over the course of, well,
all time.

The obvious sexism aside, let's run with the idea, OK? Because there is
a remarkable woman who is ready, willing, and able to serve as Leader of
the Free World.

Having solved all of New Jersey's other problems the Nanny Staters in our
legislature are turning their attention to …
underage tanning.

Lawmakers in New Jersey are shining a light on the use of tanning beds by minors.

Both the state Senate and Assembly plan to consider legislation Monday that
would make it illegal for anyone under 18 from using tanning salons —
even if they have their parents' permission.

I love that part — even if they have their parents' permission
— it's everything that's wrong with government rolled up into 7 words.

The government knows what's best for our children, and they really don't give
a shit what we think. They'll dictate what our children eat, what they wear,
where they go, and most assuredly what they are expected to think. No aspect
of our childrens' lives will be left to chance, because what if some parent
somewhere makes the "wrong" choice?

A group of six hundred Americans lost their jobs last week, another blip in
the nation's dismal unemployment statistics. What makes these particular job
losses noteworthy however is that the layoffs were entirely preventable, having
been orchestrated by machinations of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The sagging economy didn't put these 600 people out of work, government
regulation did. The product they created remains in high demand. In fact
the supply of this product is shrinking even as prices are rising. But
that's the Obama Administration plan; they want higher prices
amid crippling shortages. Why? Because the product is electricity
and the goal is to make it so expensive that millions of us will freeze
in the dark.

To save the planet of course.

It's a double-whammy coming on the heels of their
offshore oil drilling bans. Gas prices now top $4 per gallon, halfway to
the
$8 per gallon they say is the ideal price point. Exxon-Mobil just located
another
700 million barrels in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet Obama will keep it
tantalizingly out of our reach, presumably until Hugo Chavez is ready to
help the Cubans extract it.

Next up on their energy source elimination hit list? Clean, dependable natural
gas. The anti-fracking doomsayers are ready to rumble, loaded with specious
allegations of drinking water laced with toxic waste, even as EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson slipped up and
admitted it was all a bunch of horsehockey. Oops, we can't let facts
interfere with
the religion of environmentalism! Fracking sounds scary, so it's gotta be
bad!

So what does Obama say will replace fossil fuels? Renewable energy! He'll even
tax some rich guy into penury to subsidize putting solar cells on your roof.
Isn't that swell? Maybe, if you don't plan on using any electricty at night.

Workers are getting more expensive while equipment is getting cheaper, and the
combination is encouraging companies to spend on machines rather than people.

"I want to have as few people touching our products as possible," said Dan
Mishek, managing director of Vista Technologies in Vadnais Heights, Minn.
"Everything should be as automated as it can be. We just can't afford to
compete with countries like China on labor costs, especially when workers
are getting even more expensive."

American workers aren't getting more expensive due to higher
wages; they're being priced out of the market because of
regulatory uncertainty. Today's progressive caucus trial balloon is
tomorrow's 2,000 page indecipherable patchwork of hastily enacted legislation
chock-full of unforeseen gotchas.

Machines are expensive, yes — but at least management has some clue about
just how expensive. A "known known," if you will. You, on the other hand, have
become a "known unknown." And that's the kind of expense management just can't
afford these days.

The city that brought us Saturday in the Park and Shakespeare in the
Park and Sunday in the Park with George now offers
Free Wi-Fi in the Park.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson today
announced a five-year initiative to provide free Wi-Fi service at 26 locations
in 20 New York City parks across the five boroughs. Starting today, AT&T Wi-Fi
is available free of charge to any users at Battery Bosque in Battery Park,
the north-end playground in Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx, and around the
recreation center at Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem, with 23 additional
park locations to follow this summer.

And when they say "free," they mean free. There's no cost to use it,
and the taxpayers aren't footing the bill either.

To hear
some doomsayers tell it, if we don't all convert to
IPv6 (and in the process buy all new computers, software, and networking
gear) the Internet will crash and burn later this year. Why? Because IPv4 has
run out of addresses.

Yeah, it's time for another Wy Tech Talk. Sorry, but it's my birthday and
someone decided to rain on my parade by declaring it
World IPv6 Day so I'm grumpy. IPv6, for those of you who don't know, is
The Future according to various and sundry international standards bodies who
meet in exotic locales to argue in French over whether or not the UN should
have a backdoor into every American's web browser.

IP (which stands for "Internet Protocol") is the magic which runs the internet.
We currently use IPv4 and it seems to work just fine. Otherwise you wouldn't
be reading this.

But the folks who assign IPv4 addresses say they have no more left to give
out. Every PC (and server and internet-connected device) needs an IP address,
and now that there are no more left some people won't be able to surf the web.

It's sort of like when the phone company runs out of numbers so they move your
town into a new area code that nobody recognizes as a local call. Except IANA
(The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) says now they're out of area codes
too.

So in the great tradition of international consensus, legions of UN bureaucrats
along with a plethora of "stakeholders", got together a dozen or so years ago
to come up with A Plan. And they devised a plan that only a masochist
could love: Scrap IPv4 completely and make every internet user in the universe
change to IPv6.

Everyone gets a new IP address! And has to purchase new equipment too. Going
back to that phone company analogy, imagine having to buy all new phones when
you're assigned to a new area code. Yeah, that would suck.

IPv6 sucks more.

But the Big Lie is that we have to convert, that there is no alternative because
we are totally out of IPv4 internet addresses.

Except, we're not totally out. There are millions of IPv4 addresses sitting
unused, locked away in corporate and governmental networks. And fully one
eighth of the potential IPv4 addresses aren't even currently usable due to
how some equipment manufacturers interpreted an example diagrammed in an early
textbook on IP networking. Supposedly the technical problems associated with
fixing that mistake are harder than forcing everyone to switch to IPv6.

One thing we could do is let the free market decide. As IPv4 addresses become
scarce they become more valuable. Companies who are sitting on thousands of
addresses could potentially reap a nice profit by selling them, and the folks
who need to connect new PCs should be willing to pay for the privilege, right?

Wrong! The rules established by the international internet cabal expressly
forbid the selling of IPv4 addresses. In fact, if they find out you did sell
your addresses they "delist" them from the core internet routers. That's the
equivalent of disconnecting your phone number because you switched long distance
companies. People who try to reach you are turned away, and you can't connect
to anywhere else.

Ah but at it's heart the internet is run by a bunch of socialists. And they
hate the idea that someone might be willing to pay more for better service.
To them it means the people who don't pay are somehow "disenfranchised" even
though they are still getting the same service they've gotten all along.
Hence the mantra of "Net Neutrality."

That isn't to say the socialists don't like the idea of us paying for our IP
addresses. Oh no sirree. They just want us to pay them. With IPv6
everyone rents their address for an annual fee, payable to one of
those UN standards bodies. Yes, it's the dreaded Internet Tax and it's
totally outside the jurisdiction of any of our elected representatives.

Naturally, in keeping with the egalitarian notion of wealth redistribution,
the rental fees are higher in developed nations (especially the U.S.) than
they are in the third world. Because that's fair.

So, does the Obama Administration care about any of this? Nah, they're too busy
hiring RIAA lawyers to rewrite copyright regulations in order to
make it illegal for us to embed YouTube videos in our blogs. Not that the
Republicans are any better informed; quite the contrary as the GOP is equally
gung-go to cede control of the internet to Hollywood.

So it's Hollywood or the UN, and either way we're screwed. Happy World IPv6 Day!

It's almost as if, having tired of being the president, Barack Obama
is already auditioning for his next role — upstaging Jimmy Carter as The
Most Abnoxious Ex-President Ever. You just know he'd be perfect at it!

Making good on last year's promise to get the state out of the TV business,
Gov. Chris Christie yesterday unveiled a five-year agreement with WNET Channel
13 to operate the state's TV network. Christie also announced the state will
sell the network's radio licenses to WHYY in Philadelphia and New York Public
Radio in New York for almost $5 million in cash and in-kind contributions.

Meet the New NJN, same as the old NJN. The only difference is it'll be called
NJTV, and the taxpayers won't be directly subsidizing it. We'll still be a
conduit for a couple million bucks in federal money headed to "a new subsidiary"
of WNET though.

About $4.7 million in revenue that currently supports NJN will go to the new
subsidiary. Included in that is the state's $2.2 million Corporation for Public
Broadcasting grant, which must be used for programming costs.

So, we get $5 million up front, and we're still on the hook for $4.7 million
a year? Such a deal!

I hope we got a nice tote bag too!

They did promise to continue providing "New Jersey centric" coverage.

Neal Shapiro, president of WNET, said the new subsidiary will have its own
board of New Jersey residents and a staff of fewer than 20, led by interim
general manager John Servidio of Montclair. Servidio currently serves as
general manager of WLIW, which is a part of WNET.

"We will cover the state, the whole state, in a new way," Shapiro said. "More
in-depth coverage and extended interviews."

For starters, they're replacing the NJN nightly newscast with "Charlie Rose,"
so things are certainly headed in the left right direction.

Still, various opponents of the deal question the quality of journalism that
would be produced on such a trimmed-down staff.

Which is what they get for sticking with the PBS model rather than thinking
outside the box.

You know what I think Christie should have done?

If he's gonna give it away, why not give it away to
Andrew Breitbart? Real Journalism,
on a shoestring.

He's a Liberal. Liberals have no morals; to them everything is
relative. But without morals there can be no shame. Alas, without
shame where is the need to resign in disgrace?

In the middle of "apologizing" (for what? getting caught?) Congressman
Anthony Weiner announced his re-election bid. If that doesn't tell us
all we need to know about his moral compass, nothing will.

Sadly the voters of NY-9 probably will re-elect him. In Liberal-land It's OK
to degrade and humiliate women so long as you protect their right to murder
their unborn children. That's the one absolute in a morass of liberal feminist
equivocation.

In the end the whole charade was just so gosh-darned predictable.
The only thing missing is Weiner's wife begging for personal privacy on the
arm of Oprah Winfrey. Maybe she can go on The View instead.

If you go to Google and type in "syphilitic camel,"
this post of mine currently ranks number one.

How do I know this?

Because for some reason lots and lots of people are going to Google this
morning and typing in "syphilitic camel." Then they click the link.

Why? I'm not sure. Maybe it's due to
Instapundit's reaction to
a post by Allahpundit on the Tea Party saying they'll back Mitt Romney if
he is the GOP nominee. Apparently, some of the lefty blogs are yucking it up,
thinking we're not serious.

Back in February the state of New Jersey estimated 20,000 public workers
might retire this year, the largest number in decades. Why? "Uncertainty" about
Gov. Chris Christie's plans for making them pay for their gold-plated benefit
packages.

The steady rise in retirements comes amid economic uncertainty, with changes
in pension and health benefits for public employees remaining at the top of
the state's political agenda. As a result, an increasing number of the more
than 500,000 state and municipal employees are choosing to retire rather than
risk having their benefits cut by legislators.

Good grief! We have five hundred thousand government employees? In a
state with only 8.7 million people? Pennsylvania, with 12.4 million residents
and something like 6 times our land mass, gets by with about 350,000 public
workers.

So, is New Jersey overstaffed? I'd say "yes."

But, sniff, with so many people leaving their cushy public jobs, the
folks left behind are sad.

"This is very destructive and indicates a low level of morale that workers are
leaving jobs in this bad economy," said Hetty Rosenstein, president of the
Communication Workers of America, which represents about 40,000 state workers.

Repeat after me Ms. Rosenstein: the unemployment rate is 9.1% (thanks in no
small part to that Obama fellow you and your union buddies helped put into
office). So if you guys don't like your jobs anymore? I'm sure I can find an
unemployed taxpayer or 3 who'll jump at the chance to take your place.

Three bi-sexual men were kicked out of the Gay Softball World Series for not
being "gay enough." The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association has an
official rule which prohibits more than two heterosexuals per team.

The men sued, claiming discrimination.

They lost.

"Plaintiffs have failed to argue that there is a compelling state interest in
allowing heterosexuals to play gay softball," Coughenour wrote, according to
the Courthouse News Service.

"It is not the role of the courts to scrutinize the content of an
organization's chosen expression."

Really? Since when? That's pretty much what courts have been doing for
decades, isn't it?

Actually though, I like this ruling. Why? Because it enhances
liberty. The Gay World Series ought to be able to decide who plays
(and who doesn't). If they want to restrict their membership to left-handed,
one-eyed bald gay guys, that's nobody's business but theirs.

Who's with me? Because even though there's common sense on display here I
think we're veering into dangerous territory.

In fact, let's propose an experiment. Suppose I was to start a "straight
softball league." No more than two gay guys per team. Who here thinks that'll
pass Constitutional muster?

Yeah, me neither.

It's only designated minority groups who can discriminate with abandon.
They're free to institute "purity tests" that could never be condoned by
polite society if the tables were turned and they were the oppressees
instead of the oppressors.

I mean, it isn't like these black bi-sexual dudes wanted to
hit the pool at a whitesgay-only swim club. That would be
illegal!
The ACLU would sue! Wouldn't they?

Back in 1938, during the depths of the Depression, the Chicago chapter of The
Salvation Army cooked up a novel idea to raise funds. They decided to honor the
men and women who handed out donuts to the troops during World War I by
selling donuts.

Chris Christie hopped aboard a State Police helicopter so he could watch his
son's baseball game. And then he flew back home in time to meet with some
dudes from Iowa.

And suddenly he was the reincarnation of Marie Antoinette, or the robber barons,
or Scrooge McDuck. The High Dudgeon was
even higher than usual, to the point of ridiculing the governor's choice in
private schools for his children.

Even after the State Police said Christie was "going their way," and the flight
was essentially a training mission, the drumbeats for the governor's scalp
continued unabated. There's even a
Memeorandum thread!

Guess what whingers?
Chris Christie just wrote a check for $2,251 to cover the cost of all his
helicopter trips to date. And the State Republican Party kicked in another
$919 bucks as payment for Tuesday night's flight back home.

And next time? He'll take the bus.

Now can we please get back to complaining about, and maybe fixing,
a few of the Real Problems facing New Jersey? Like f'rinstance, how many of
the helicopter haters are themselves
state salary double (and triple) dippers, ostensibly performing 2 or 3
full-time jobs, and accumulating multiple pension credits to boot?

I'm thinking eliminating that sort of abuse would save us taxpayers a whole
lot more than keeping Christie's helicopter in the garage ever could.

In the HBO series The Sopranos Tony's lifelong dream was to build a
Museum of Science and Trucking dedicated to his mobster father. On June
11th in Union City, NJ the city fathers will unveil a museum
in honor of their very own mobster patriarch, former Mayor William V. Musto.

Only in New Jersey!

Musto was convicted in 1982 on federal racketeering charges for helping the
mob siphon off funds from an expansion project of the city's two high schools.

But in most of Hudson County corruption isn't exactly a character flaw, more
like a badge of honor. And so current Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, he of
his own (relatively minor) ethics problems, created the
William V. Musto Cultural Center out of an old library building.

The Cultural Center will house the Union City Museum of Art, the Union City
Police Museum, the Union City Art Gallery & Concert Hall, the Union City
Museum of History, as well as serve as a Senior Citizen Center.

Nope, Chris Christie is not running for president.
He said so, again, after meeting yesterday with a group of
influential Iowa GOP donors. They flew to NJ in an (apparently unsuccessful)
attempt to persuade him to enter the race.

Gov. Chris Christie will travel to Iowa this summer to participate in an
education summit.

The governor, who has insisted vehemently that he isn't running for president,
is going at the request of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, said Christie political
strategist Mike DuHaime.

Two other big-name Republicans who aren't running for president either
(yet!) also plan to visit Iowa this summer. Rep. Michele Bachmann has all but
declared her candidacy already, and
Sarah Palin is giving the media fits as her multi-state bus tour bobs and
weaves its way to New York, Massachusetts, and …
Iowa.

If we take Chris Christie at his word that he's "not ready" to be president,
can we perhaps, maybe, potentially see him running for Vice
President? Is there a Palin / Christie, or Bachmann / Christie ticket
in our future?

He'd certainly lend a whole lotta gravitas to either lady's presidential
aspirations. And he still wouldn't be running for president.